Experiencing Life in Statesboro (Part I of IV)

One thing I love about living in different areas is the adventure. It’s scary and exciting to discover a place – its land, people, and amenities. There is some of each from the areas I’ve traveled and lived that hold on tight to my heart. Our life in Statesboro is just beginning. As we’ve been told more than once, “Welcome to the REAL south!”

Week 1 (February 14th-20th)

 Our first full week was busy with unpacking, deep cleaning, minor repairs, and discoveries. Our first ‘O my goodness, it’s late and we need food!’ run led us to Krystal. My guys found a new favorite – from burgers to chicken sandwiches to shrimp. All were happy. During lunch one day, we had leftover wings from feeding the gang who helped us moved in. John and I decided one of us likes cleaner bones than the other, or were just hungrier. Any guesses who? We also ventured over to Uncle Shug’s Fried Chicken. Ummmm…. They had some fun pics on the walls, and the company was outstanding! Of course, the best food came out of our own kitchen - made with love. It felt so good to be a family sitting around the table, knowing it would be for longer than a handful of days.

A BP gas adventure made our week! John and I explored a bread outlet around the corner, followed by a BP before hitting the Dollar General next door. The grocery store we now frequent, BI-LO, is paired with BP. Gas was pretty low to begin with, but with our reward points we made out at $1.09/gal! I suppose another outing piqued the boys’ interest. AAA ‘broke’ into our car so we could get the keys from the trunk. My young men thought it was cool. I thought it was cool we had AAA, and that they were quick!

While unpacking boxes, nerf bullets have been discovered in strange places… they do add up! Some of our fixing up has included a leak in the roof (my guys were having way too much fun up there), and a stubborn stain on the vinyl floor. I’ve tried several different remedies to no avail. The floor has lightened a bit, but that’s all. Any ideas? When not busy working, the guys have had fun playing (yep, nerf, also), going for walks, and enjoying our yard – we all appreciate it. You should see our ‘Wateringhole Branch’ stream moving after a good rain. In the sun green anoles have surfaced around our house. They seem to be living around our propane tank. The one surprise is the sweetgum trees. The only reason we moved from Youngsville was to get away from them, and here they are - not for long! (Well, maybe it wasn’t the only reason…)

                                                                                      ~Jenny~

As you can see, I'm experimenting with different picture formats. A huge delay to my postings is due to the frustration I find with getting the placement of photos to my liking. I found a site, www.photocollage.com, which is much easier than what I had been using. Any suggestions?

Trees

I have always enjoyed nature. As a child I couldn't wait to be at the beach, go camping, to the park, or just hang out in Granny's yard. Her landscaping (as well as my parents'... thanks to Dad) was amazing. I'm fortunate enough to have a husband and boys who love nature as well.

There are some familiar trees here and some not so familiar trees. The boys are working on a report of the tree of their choice. Once again we headed to Ulmstead Park. It was nice to have a wonderful ranger spend time showing us trees and a bit about them.

Jordan is sticking with our new (to us) state tree, the Flowering Dogwood. It is also Virginia's state tree and British Columbia's provincial tree. It'll be beautiful to see them in bloom come spring.

Joseph was really wanting to write about the Loblolly Pine and was thrilled to discover those are the pines in our apartment complex and most of the pines in the area. Nothing like a tree to make one's day! It's amazing how tall they are. Joseph did find one more his height. :)

A break from trees to show y'all the lizard we came upon. My first lizard in NC! Growing up in Florida, I loved watching lizards and trying to catch them. During trips down, my Young Men (still my Little Men), now like to do the same. We were all singin' and dancin' to meet this little fellow. The poor lizard thought we were crazy!

John chose a new favorite of mine. We had been finding these very intersting 'cones' outside our patio. Mom came up with the clever idea of using them for decorations, a wreath? There they were at Ulmstead's! Come to find out it's Sweetgum from the Witch Hazel family. The 'cones' are its fruit... a multicapsular spherical head filled with seeds.

I've include the pic of the shrooms amongst the trees, for I am a shroom person. I'm obsessed with the numerous different fungi. So beautiful and unique. So savoury or deadly. There were many around our Northern home I often wondered about cooking. Tim said his mother used to cook them up ~ yum!

~Jenny~

<3  How do I ever make a heart for my blog when using the laptop? Hmmm.... help?